“CSI: Benghazi” canceled before it even starts

Remember the great FBI investigation of the ruined U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya? It has been repeatedly cited by the Obama Administration as the reason they won’t discuss the consulate attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Nothing definitive can be said until the G-men complete their investigation!

But the FBI never actually made it to Benghazi. Three weeks after the attack, they were unable to “visit the compound, set up any operations in the city, or even interview any witnesses who were present during the terrorist attack,” according to Yahoo News.

This was supposedly due to the unacceptable security situation in Benghazi. Repeated attacks on the consulate over the past few months did not move the State Department to answer their cries for enhanced security, but now the area is too unsafe for a team of law enforcement professionals from one of the world’s most respected agencies.

However, media organizations appear to have little trouble accessing those witnesses, or even rummaging through the ruins of the consulate. CNN even turned up Ambassador Stevens’ handwritten journal.

And now it looks like that FBI investigation will never happen, because the State Department has moved all American personnel back to Tripoli. Not that there would have been much to find in a three-week-old crime scene. “Anything of value has been looted or picked through by local and journalists, and it’s unlikely that investigators would find any useful evidence on site after such a long gap in time,” Yahoo News mournfully observes.

Was that the reason for keeping the FBI team at a safe distance? Was the Administration nervous about what they might find? Or was it just necessary to keep the investigative works gummed up until after the election?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded to yesterday’s bombshell House Oversight letter, which outlined the deteriorating situation in Benghazi before the 9/11 attack and asked tough questions about State’s lack of response to consulate requests for increased security, by announcing that she has put together an “Accountability Review Board” that “begins its work this week.” She encouraged House Oversight to “withhold any final conclusions about the Benghazi attack until the committee can review the ARB’s findings.” Anyone taking side bets on whether those conclusions will thump onto the desks of Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and National Security subcommittee chair Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) before November 6?